For longtime fans, Music Complete is something of a return to form for New Order—complete with appropriately chic minimalist artwork courtesy of Peter Saville. The record’s carefully considered aesthetic and meticulous production bear all the hallmarks of the band’s most iconic work. Still, it’s hard to know if anyone other than the band’s legions of devotees will find most of this material truly arresting. Music Complete certainly doesn’t do anything to diminish New Order’s formidable legacy, but it doesn’t necessarily expand upon it either. That being said, it still sounds like classic New Order, and now over three decades deep into their career, it's kind of amazing that nothing else really does.MORE

It took a crisis to reunite New Order. The pioneering dance-rock group had ostensibly called it quits in the latter half of the Aughts, but in 2011, they learned that their friend, "Blue Monday" and "True Faith" video director Michael H. Shamberg, had taken seriously ill. So the band regrouped and booked some gigs to raise money for his medical bills.

Originally, the band — which consists these days of frontman Bernard Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris and returning keyboardist Gillian Gilbert (who had left in 2001), along with guitarist Phil Cunningham and bassist Tom Chapman — was set to play only three gigs. But Sumner, who is age 59 and typically soft-spoken, says the reunion snowballed. "We've been on tour for three-and-a-half years off and on," he says from his home near Macclesfield, England. "It seemed like the opportunity to write an album."MORE

Music Complete was produced by New Order with additional work from Stuart Price (Superheated) and the Chemical Brothers Tom Rowlands (Singularity and Unlearn This Hatred). It will be released on September 25. The tracklist is as follows:

RestlessSingularityPlasticTutti FruttiPeople on the High LineStray DogAcademicNothing But a FoolUnlearn This HatredThe GameSuperheatedMORE

New Order have signed to the legendary independent label Mute, which will release their 10th studio album worldwide. “We couldn’t imagine a better place to be than working with Daniel Miller and his team,” the band said of their new home. “Mute has a superb roster of artists and a history that complements our own. In many ways, joining the label feels like we are coming home.” (The band’s Bernard Sumner had recently suggested the band might be working with DFA Records.)MORE